Perfluorocarbon emulsions have shown a significant potential as an alternative to traditional blood products as a whole blood substitute and in treating a variety of cardiovascular problems including stroke. The need for this alternative is becoming and will continue to become more urgent in light of a decreasing supply of blood donors and an increasing incidence of viral contaminants in blood supplies. Although the clinical experience with these emulsions has been very encouraging, current formulations being tested suffer from a number of limitations; the most serious of which are accumulation of the perfluorocarbon oil and surfactant in the liver and a severe lack of physical stability of the emulsion. These limitations severely limit the clinician in fully exploring the usefulness of this dosage form/treatment and will eventually limit the clinical utility, wide distribution and, ultimately, the successful commercialization of the dosage form. The objective of this study is overcome the limitations of current perfluorocarbon oil emulsions and to develop physically stable, clinically useful formulations using fundamental physical/chemical, pharmaceutical principles. The first step will be to characterize the hydrophilic/lipophilic behavior of several perfluorocarbon oils selected on the basis of their oxygen and carbon dioxide transport and low toxicity. Their behavior will be determined as a function of emulsifier, temperature and processing variables and in the presence of additives commonly found in parenteral products such as electrolytes, preservatives, oncotic agents and stabilizers. The data developed will be used to formulate and prepare emulsions and optimize their performance in regards to both pharmaceutical stability and clinical utility. It is anticipated that this research will lead to the development of useful emulsions that will be tested in animal models for effectiveness in treating a variety of cardiovascular disorders and eventually to clinical testing in humans.